First-year PHS ski team gains downhill momentum

PORTSMOUTH — It's been almost a blind run downhill, taking each next turn as it happens.

Mike Zhe

PORTSMOUTH — It's been almost a blind run downhill, taking each next turn as it happens.

But for the fledgling Portsmouth High School ski team, the seeds of which were planted just three months ago, with some skiers approaching the athletic department looking to form a team, it's been a pretty nice run so far.

"The past year or two a couple girls had been interested in putting together a team," said junior Annika Hamilton, the top skier on the girls' team. "This year, there was enough interest."

"It's a real good story, actually," said athletic director Rus Wilson. "The kids came to us and asked if we could have a ski team. It's a relatively cheap sport because they practice on their own."

There are 54 schools in New Hampshire that field boys or girls alpine (downhill) ski teams, and the Clippers are one of 16 teams in Division II, the second-largest of the four divisions.

In three races, which have involved between six and eight teams in their classification, the girls have finished second, second and first. Each skier gets two giant slalom runs, the top runs typically taking between 30 and 50 seconds, with the top four combined times forming the team score.

"I think (other teams) are surprised because we're new to the sport," said Hamilton, who won a race earlier this month. "and concerned, because we're good."

Hamilton's younger brother, Lars, a freshman, has been the top skier on the boys' side, winning a competition at Crotched Mountain on Jan. 9, though he was edged at the team's last outing by teammate Joshua Epstein.

"It's great that there's a team component in it," said Lars. "On the weekend (competitions), we don't really have that."

"There's a lot of enthusiasm from the kids," said coach Kyle Harrison. "We sort of have two types of skiers — those who are very good skiers and are racing for the first time, and skiers like the Hamiltons who've been skiing for a long time, and really are the foundation of this program."

While the sport of skiing causes dollar signs to appear in the vision of most parents, the varsity status was an inexpensive addition to the school's offerings, Wilson said. Harrison drives the team to races in the city recreation bus and almost all the practicing is done individually.

"It's almost like a trial year, because it just came together so late," said Harrison, an English teacher at the school who also coaches the golf team. "But next year it will be more organized. We'll get together on a daily basis to do something before the snow flies.

"I told (the athletic department) I didn't have a tremendous amount of experience with dry-land training. But when I saw how much experience we had already it was OK to get the program off the ground."

The team is made up of 16 members, all of whom have a solid foundation in the sport. That was the prerequisite when the call for candidates was posted in November.

"We didn't want kids to come in who had learned to ski last year and just wanted to get a day off from school," said Wilson. "We asked for a little bit of experience."

At the top of that chart are the Hamilton siblings, who have been skiing since they were young. They compete on weekends in state and regional competitions.

"Our dad was really into ski racing so much, so when we were 7 or 8 we started skiing with a program at Cranmore (Mountain Resort in North Conway)," said Lars. "Then a few years ago we moved over to Cannon (Mountain in Franconia)."

"The high school team's great," said Annika, "because when we're racing alpine on the weekends it's not a team at all."

Senior Nellie Coyle is another weekend skier. Sisters Lizzie, a senior, and Allie Nelson, a sophomore, and freshman Grace Getman are also accomplished.

The season will culminate with the Division II championships Feb. 11 (boys) and Feb. 13 (girls), but Harrison is already looking ahead to next winter, when there will be time to set up a more formal dry-land practice structure and maybe some more practice time on the slopes.

"I'm excited we got it off the ground," said Harrison, "and I really look forward to making something out of it."

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